I am an accomplished, creative and award-winning professional with a comprehensive background of traditional and digital agency, digital publishing, online marketing and design experience.
I specialize in directing agency and in-house creative teams that create effective digital marketing products for major brands, SMBs and non-profit organizations.
I was the Creative Director for the video in this TV spot for ShelfGenie. I found and hired the actors, wrote the initial script, styled the kitchen items and directed the talent on-site. The titling and music was done by an agency in post-production.
video, TV
Example of 2017 DIRECTV prospect email.
Direction of promos, triggers and remarking campaigns for DIRECTV prospect email segments since Q1 of 2017.
Email Marketing
An example of AT&T prospect email marketing.
Responsible for the creative direction for monthly promos, remarketing and trigger email campaigns. Managed the brand refresh for the "Blue World" brand update in Q4 of 2016.
Email Marketing
This animated sequence shows a low fidelity wireframe and the high fidelity comp for a promotional landing for WordPress. I was hands-on for this project, helping to design modular content in the wireframe process and develop design improvements in the final comp stage.
UX, WIREFRAME, WEBDESIGN
Creative direction and design for a customer acquisition landing page for WordPress (Automatic is the parent company).
Web Development, Web Design, UI, UX
I acted as both Project Manager and Creative Director for the marketing team at ShelfGenie. I managed the agency that designed and built the site, working directly with their Project Mangers, Developers and creative team to enhance the user experience and align their work with the ShelfGenie brand.
Additional tasks included direction on two video shoots and seven photo shoots, redesign of various pages for UI enhancements, content creation in Drupal and management of internal creative team.
Web Design, Web Development, Creative Direction
2010 IAC Outstanding Web Site - McDonald's McCafe Barista Challenge
I was the Creative Director for this interactive game we created for McDonald's agency (as a white label partner service). Our team produced everything from the original art to the Flash coding.
Interactive, Flash, Games
I provided creative direction on this project. Translated client's needs from creative brief into an eye-catching, rich media campaign. Flash illustrations created by my team.
Link takes you to a video demo of the ad as it appeared in a 300x250 ad slot.
Rich media advertising, digital advertising, flash
An example of display advertising for Wounded Warrior Project. I was the Creative Director for this account, directing the production of email & display advertising.
display
I performed several roles on the redesign of this web site for Outback GutterVac, a home maintenance franchise operating in Australia and the U.S.
I managed the external agency, redesigned many of the pages for a better user experience, operated a boom crane for the video and directed a photo shoot as well.
Web Development
This video was shot in the ShelfGenie manufacturing plant in Birmingham, Alabama. I wrote the script and storyboarded out the flow for the video. We provided wardrobe for the employees (real employees, not actors) and directed them on tasks.
Voice-over was removed for copyright purposes.
video
As Creative Director of Cox's AdStudio, my team produced mobile interactive advertising units such as this expandable Leaderboard Ad. The ad becomes an interactive bridge page, showcasing a number of real estate offerings before linking the user to Coldwell Banker's Califormiamoves.com web site.
I directed some spectacularly talented Designers and coders on this project. The site won a Webby Honoree Award for web design. It has since been updated and changed, but this screenshot represents the homepage from our design.
Web Development, Web Design, Flash
An example of print and digital ads that my team (AdStudio) created for Pike Nurseries.
Advertising
A logo I designed for CMGdigital, a division of Cox Media Group that provided the digital content and advertising solutions for Cox TV, Radio and Newspaper.
Logo
A logo I designed for mp3radio.com, an early online streaming music service developed by Cox circa 1999.
logos, branding
A repurposed TV spot for the greater Jacksonville area Cadillac dealers.
display advertising, video
This 300x250 video display ad for Cellaris was scripted and directed by myself and shot by a three-person production team with 2 cameras and a lighting rig (no audio was required).
display advertising, videoLance Simmons – IT Director, MailChimp
“I had the privilege of working with John for 7+ years. John is a truly inspiring leader. He took a diverse group of designers and programmers and turned us into a tight-knit team that flourished under his direction. I learned management and leadership skills that have been vital to my professional development. John continues to be trusted mentor and friend who I greatly respect professionally and personally. Please contact me directly if additional information might be helpful.”
Lance Whitfield – Senior Designer, Avatar Labs
“John is on of the most talented individuals I know. He had an excellent rapport internally with the designers and externally with the market reps for Cox owned properties. Under his management, we became a team and AdStudio was born. Over the years, John’s creativity and leadership, along with smart and decisive decision-making led to many awards and company-wide recognition for outstanding digital creative campaigns.”
Leyda Vega Hughes – Senior UX/UI Designer, Sharecare, Inc.
"John Witte has been my unofficial mentor throughout my creative career. He has always been generous in sharing his advice and personal experience while allowing me to learn valuable career lessons on my own. He is a strong leader and a thoughtful, caring manager. I highly recommend him."
Megumi Diaz – Designer
I was fortunate to have an opportunity to work with John for several years at Cox. He has tremendous amount of knowledge in online advertising - he is a strategic thinker as well as a smart, creative and strong leader. If given the chance to work with him again, I wouldn't hesitate.
Richard Pluhar – Project Manager for financial services at Bluewolf
"John is just one of those people you always enjoy collaborating and working with. What he was able to accomplish with AdStudio is nothing short of astounding. The quality and quantity of work his team was able to consistently produce is truly a testament to his innovative and creative vision, his ability to inspire and leverage the talent of his team, and his unique business acumen. He unequivocally understands the industry and the future of online advertising.”
I'm always open to new opportunities, both full-time and contract. So drop me a line. I look forward to speaking with you!
